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Originating from the High Evolutionary's Counter-Earth, this version of Reed Richards lived a life similar to his Earth-616 counterpart. In his university days he attended the University of California along with Victor von Doom. When one of Doom's experiments blew up in his face, horribly scarring him, Reed stood by his friend and convinced him to continue his scientific studies. Reed later hijacked a space shuttle with his world's versions of Ben Grimm, Sue Storm and her brother Johnny. Through the machinations of the Man-Beast, only Reed was mutated by a Cosmic Ray storm that the ship flew through. Ben and Johnny only suffered minor injuries due to their exposure, but Sue remained in a coma for many years.[1] Reed Richards continued his research, choosing to lose himself in his work so that he could forget his loss of Sue. |
During a full moon, Reed Richards found that the cosmic rays he was exposed to caused him to transform into a creature that he dubbed the Brute. Eventually, Richards gained control over this and learned how to trigger the transformation through force of will. Richards was then tracked down by the Man-Beast, who sent him to San Francisco to track down and destroy Man-Beast's nemesis Adam Warlock who was operating in the area. During the course of the battle, the Brute nearly drowned Warlock. However the battle ended with Warlock using his Soul Gem to cure Richards of being the Brute. |
The Man-Beast recaptured Richards and restored Richard's ability to transform into the Brute, then sent him after Warlock a second time. This time having full access to his powers, the Brute soon found he hungered for more energy and stole his old colleague Victor von Doom's earth-borer device in order to absorb Counter-Earth's geothermal energy, threatening to cause the planet to enter an ice age. When Warlock failed to stop the Brute alone, von Doom turned Counter-Earth's radiation shield into a radiation absorber, causing it to absorb the Brute's energies reverting him back into Reed Richards. This also caused the earth-borer to explode, killing von Doom in the process. |
Richards relocated to Florida where he worked closely with the military. He chanced to be on hand to witness the battle between the High Evolutionary and Galactus when the latter was attempting to consume Counter-Earth. During the struggle between Galactus and Earth-616's Fantastic Four (led by Reed's Earth-616 counterpart), Counter-Earth's Reed piloted a rocket out to the High Evolutionary's ship, and was bombarded with Cosmic Rays again, restoring his Brute powers; he also suffered a blow to the head that turned him evil. When the FF defeated Galactus they returned to Earth, unaware that the Counter-Earth version of their leader had stowed away on their ship. |